My ARC break is officially over this month. I currently have five advanced copies to review over the next couple of months. I won’t be posting my first until the end of this month, but I’m excited to get started with these in the coming weeks.
A huge thank you to HarperCollins for sending me these advanced copies!
The Enemy’s Daughter by by Melissa Poett
This is the first ARC in this post I will be reading and I actually plan to post the review at the end of this month. We all know I’m a huge fan of a retelling, so I’m really excited to start this.
I can’t even begin to describe to you how gorgeous the cover is. Sadly, I don’t have a photo of it yet so I can’t show you. But trust me, it’s stunning.
As with most of the ARCs I read, this is a new author to me, but this is also a new author for everyone. The Enemy’s Daughter is Melissa Poett’s debut novel and that makes me ten times more excited to read this. A debut and a retelling? Jackpot if you ask me.
Synopsis: A stunning reimagining of Tristan and Isolde set in a dystopian world woven with magic. An addictive debut YA enemies-to-lovers romantasy—perfect for fans of Rebecca Ross and Sarah Underwood as well as books like Curious Tides, The Hurricane Wars, and Belladonna.
It’s been thirty-seven years since the Republic was destroyed. Now two settlements—the five clans and the Kingsland—fight for control of the untainted land. Though the five clans are outnumbered, they’ve finally struck, killing Kingsland’s brutal leader.
In the war that follows, Isadora, an eighteen-year-old healer, risks her life to help injured soldiers. But when she stops an attack from Tristan, a Kingsland assassin, his soldiers shoot her with a poisoned arrow. As Isadora lies dying, Tristan does the unimaginable: He offers to save her life using a rare magic.
In choosing to live, Isadora is unknowingly bound to the mysterious Tristan. Worse, even acknowledging the attraction between them allows him to glean fragments of her memories and the very knowledge he needs to destroy the five clans. But their magical connection works both ways. So to save her people, Isadora will have to open her heart to her most cunning enemy. Because in a race for ultimate survival, she’ll need to destroy Tristan and his people first.
The Romance Rivalry by Susan Lee
This sounds really fun. I love that instead of being a tropey romance, it’s a challenge for the character to find love by way of a trope. Very interesting.
I also love that the main character is an online book reviewer. I’ve never read a book with this before. Hopefully the author doesn’t make a dig at people that give low reviews, saying that they don’t respect the work people put into creating something. I read a book that made this point, it was about restaurant ratings but was clearly a (not so cleverly) disguised rant about book reviewers.
Synopsis: She’s read every romance…except her own…
Irene Park loves romance novels—so much so she’s made a career of them as an online book reviewer with a massive following. But Irene’s real life dating story? Non-existent. So when she starts her freshman year of college, she sets her sights on finding true love using the one thing she really understands…romance book tropes.
If only it were that easy.
Enter Aiden Jeon, Irene’s online book review rival and biggest nemesis. When Aiden challenges her to see who can find love-by-trope first, he becomes the one person standing in her way to getting everything she wants both professionally and personally, too. So when the competition takes an unexpected turn, forcing the two of them to have to partner in the ultimate trope, fake dating, Irene is not prepared for everything she believed about romance, and Aiden, to flip on its head.
As Irene tackles the challenges of college life, struggles to figure out what she really wants for herself, all while trying to win the race for love, Irene realizes the answers may not be found in a romance novel. Happily Ever Afters seem so easy on page. But for Irene to find her ultimate HEA, she’ll have to get her nose out of the book and become the main character of her own story.
Run Like a Girl by Amaka Egbe
Yet another stunning cover that I don’t have a photo of to show you. HarperCollins have been killing it with their covers lately. This is definitely up there as one of my favourites of 2025 so far.
This is also another debut and I have high hopes for it. I don’t often read sports-related books but I did enjoy the few I have read. They were mostly sports romances though, and I don’t think this is.
Synopsis: Dera Edwards knows her life is over when she’s shipped off to live with her estranged father in the middle of White Suburbia. To make matters worse, Dera learns that her new school doesn’t have a girls’ track team, shattering her dreams of getting a track scholarship and, one day, competing in the Olympics.
Not one to give up easily, Dera joins the boys’ team instead. But while she has the school administration’s blessing, her new teammates and classmates are less than welcoming. Between that and her frustratingly distant father, Dera is positive her junior year is ruined.
Just as she starts to accept her status as an outsider, Dera’s approached by her classmate Rosalyn, who wants to feature Dera’s story in her blog. Eager to change the narrative and spend more time with Rosalyn’s gorgeous cousin Gael—also known as one of the few teammates who will talk to her—Dera agrees.
But when she goes viral and gains attention across the state, Dera’s new notoriety opens the door for trolls both online and at school. Paired with her deteriorating relationship with her father, she soon finds everything to be too much. Will Dera be able to keep outrunning her problems, or will her dream be the very thing that derails her?
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Like this post? Why not read this one too: Audiobook Review: One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
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